Mass Effects
by alphaomega325
Summary: In the year 2150 an event happened near the planet Klendagon resulting in a being pulled from one universe to this.  A powerful being that in time will change the galaxy.  The is the story of the Transapient Hephaestus and his rise in the galaxy. OA/ME
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Mass effect belongs to Bioware and Orion's arm belongs to the Orion's arms universe project.**

Prologue: The importance of a single event.

One event can change everything. It doesn't matter whether it is a large event or a small event nor does it matter whether it is a natural event or created by personal choice. For if an event were to contact on any society it will cause small ripples which may give the correct time, place, a event causes waves throughout society. For whenever something happens it changes society, it changes people.

In 2150 near the planet Klendagon within the century system in the Hawking Eta cluster, an event happened pulling a being from one universe to another. This being in time will change the entire galaxy and indeed the course of history itself. This being's name is Hephaestus: A basic transapient from the Keter dominion with a combination of beliefs of Keterism and MPA materialism. In time he will reveal himself and a project that will change the galaxy forever.

But that is in the future; this story is how he got there. How he developed into a hidden superpower, how he brought peace and stability to the terminus systems, how when the time was right revealed to the galaxy what can be truly accomplished if the right technology is deployed to the fullest extent. And with the technology show the galaxy of the potential power of the philosophy of transhumanism and of original technology.

True he may be brutal both in honesty and of those he believe deserves it. He is also abrasive, cold, and some even call him strange. But however no one can deny what he had done. At the same time he will make enemies among some powerful people for he is a destabilizer of the pecking-order of the galaxy which they directly benefit. As a result they try to discredit him, destroy him, kill him, and in the end try to justify themselves to the general public. You shall see whether or not they will be successful.

But that is in the future for now we shall see how he originally went from his universe to the universe which the Citadel Council and Element Zero exists. Our story begins in orbit of a xeno-artifact The Hedrile in the solar dominion in the year 10950 A.T. Our Transapient Hephaestus, after centuries of planning and of struggles, is now waiting in orbit around The Hedrile. He is awaiting permission of the Solar Dominion Archailect, The Lord of Rays to go into The Hedrile. For the beginning is critical for the rest of the story.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1: Princípium

In the orbit of the planet sized xeno-artifact called the Hedrile I await with my conversion drive correcting my orbit every tenth of a second with a feeling of nervousness in my computing cores. Hedrile is a xeno-artifact with a diameter of ten-thousand kilometers. On its surface there are triangular prisms each with strange alien writings that have yet to be deciphered the interesting part is that it block neutrinos which either means that it is so dense that it's a miracle it didn't turn into a black hole, or it's something else altogether.

And to show how dense it takes a light year of lead to block half the neutrinos flowing through it. Another thing is that at its side where it faces the sun it has one hundred percent reflective while the opposite side is one hundred percent absorptive.

The reason why I am in orbit of Hedrile is because I want to go into it, but however to go into the Hedrile I must follow procedure which is to basically radio in telling all of the research stations that I am going in with data on my speed and my course to Hedrile which they will respond which when I can enter. But I still need to wait due to light lag for all the stations to respond.

But however there is an additional issue in that ever since 5 Solarian second singularity research probes have been lost the Solarian AI god Lord of Rays forbids all further Solarian excursions. To understand a mind of a AI god is in my opinion pointless. The reason is the simple fact that each of their minds have more processing power than the entirety of the modosophont population in the Terragen sphere.

But however despite that there are theories which include the reasonable like a one way wormhole to somewhere and he want to find the other end and get his men back. To the unreasonable that it uses a form of FTL and he doesn't want modosophonts to learn the secret of FTL. Then of course there is the insane like that it is a portal to hell and he plans to open it when the time is right.

But however I'm still technically a citizen of the Solar Dominion so I still need permission from the Lord Of Rays to go through Hedrile which I should receive any moment now. But through millennia of experience I've became completely jaded of the Solarian Ideals that everyone has a place in the universe and that they can move to any place in the universe if they can just put their minds into it. Well after seeing the many atrocities of the Diamond Network, the human farms of the Metasoft Empire, and the poverty and tyranny of corrupt governments of the outer volumes I lost all faith in the Solarian Ideals.

As a result I needed to look into myself and determine which world view is best for me. The result of decades of inner searching is that I embrace a mixture of Keterism and MPA materialism. My mixture of Keterism and MPA materialism emphasize on big structures and to help others to perfect themselves and to free others from slavery of all forms. In the end it is perfect for me for 2 reasons.

The first reason is that whenever I can I will always help free other sapients from slavery, although I'm not one of those extremists which say "let's free the AI that are specifically created to keep our life support on and prefers to be managing our life support than to be free." Or the worse still "let's turn our microwaves into sapient beings and free them into a world where they can't function." No I will only free those that can both function in the real world and indeed want to be free.

The second reason is that whenever I create things, whether technology, architecture, or weapons I like to create them using the most advanced technology I can create. Not to mention I like to create large things like megastructures in space or arcologies so large that, if you were to hollow one of them out and look up in the ground floor you couldn't even see the ceiling.

Although most of my technologies can't shapeshift unlike so many other technologies in the Terragen sphere, the reason being with shapeshifting the technology will both lose some of its power and has a greater chance of breaking in extreme environments. And due to my adventures the technologies will more likely than not end up in extreme environments.

Why I want to go into Hedrile is simple. I want to know what's on the other side. But since no probe's ever been returned from Hedrile it must mean that either objects from the other side doesn't have the capability to enter our side or else it get destroyed. But there is one thing I know I won't take any chances so I am taking zero chances when it comes to my safety.

My Body is currently a medium size vessel that is more like a heavily armored, heavily armed, mobile ISO node. My Body is eight hundred meters long two hundred meters wide and one hundred meters tall. Its shape is a triple spike in the front with 2 side spikes ending halfway towards its main spike and all of the spikes starting from a quarter forward to the front.

On the back where my armored conversion drives are located jut out 4 circular thrusters to the main hull. I am 10 meters thin at the front while my thickest point is in the back and middle at a hundred meters thick. But the bottom is smooth while the top is at an angle allowing for the previous mentioned dimensions. In all it is blocky and slightly ugly looking with its crimson skin and blocky appearance. But like I always say when making something appearances shouldn't even be in the list of goals making my entire homegrown tech base look both blocky and ugly but very powerful and very reliable.

Within my body, I have expansive databanks with yottabytes of multiple copies of technical information, schematics, and my backups along with extensive mining/building probes which are copied within my three spikes. My databanks uses Siris habitat 5cm highest grade non Magmatter core Storage device interspaced with 5cm computing cores for my mind which after external modifications to include a thick radiation shield is now 20 cm with layers upon layers of radiation hardening materials, blue goo defenses, adamant the strongest type of diamondoid for armor, and polyfullerene to increase its structural integrity. Furthermore my body contains the same radiation shield design but thicker to about 5 meters thick.

For weapons I have 16 high-energy lasers that jut out on my main spike in half-spheres in a diameter of 10 meters. And on the front of my side spikes lay a electron particle beam cannons but In order to aim them I have to physically turn my entire body.

My engine is 4 standard homebuilt internal conversion drives with 10 monopole breeders among the 3 spikes. I also have an extendable ramscoop on the front of my center spike. Along with instructions and schematics on making more monopole breeders in my databanks which both cost me a fortune but are worth it for along with my ramscoop it allows me in essence infinite fuel. The reason why I have so many of this expensive equipment is so that way if one of my engines or monopole breeders get destroyed or damaged I will be able to have backups to allowing me to still move.

Likewise within the spikes of my body I have 3 conversion generators for each side spike and 4 on my main spike, but however I only use 1 of them at a time in order to make sure that if one of them got damaged I will be able to automatically switch to the one of the other 2 as a backup power supply. The exception is when in combat situations then I would activate all of my generators to power my weaponry.

Also on the inside of my body are bulkheads with 5 meter thick walls that separate my main spike into in essence 6 separate self sustaining parts and my other 2 spikes into 2 parts. Each of these parts are capable of functioning on their own and has a suit of nanorepair modules. So that even if one of my body parts were to survive I will still be able to complete fix my entire body in about a decade. Furthermore each part has compressed backups of both my mind and my data along with a backup processing core. So that if I lost my main databanks and my main processing centers I will still have the information in a compressed form and still be able to think albeit as slow as a human mind.

That is pretty much my entire body. It is built with the most top grade materials that I can get my hands on with the most advanced technologies I can personally make with one goal in mind, safety. And in a few seconds I will receive confirmations from the other stations and proceed to Hedrile.

A few minutes have passed when I receive a notification from one of the stations 5 light seconds away that one of the avatars of the Lord of Rays want to speak to me. So bringing up a virch (or a virtual reality) that resembles the ancient pre-information age library with gothic architecture around the leather bound books. I created myself as my normal default avatar reading one of the books stored there in the middle of the room.

My default avatar is a bipedal human shape vec (sapient robot) wearing a red robe with it's hood up with octopus like arms extending from my back and containing a variety of 4 fingered circular claws. I have aadamant skin that is flawless covered by my red robes which has a series of circuit like black patterns. I have 6 glowing green vision sensors under the hood that hide my sensor array that is my head.

The Lord of Ray's servant's avatar will connect to this virch in any millisecond so I better be my best behavior. The reason being that this servant like of his entire servants is about a toposcopic level above my own. And could probably without even trying break through the virch and destroy me without any effort.

In a yellow light one of the servants of the Lord of Rays came. He is a male human that are at peak physical form. But he is composed of yellow plasma with the light turned down considerably. It allows me to appreciate the fact that his body is admitting tiny rings of plasma called solar prominence across his body like a star.

"Hello Servant of the Lord of Rays." I said in my electronic voice whilst closing the book and sending all of my attention to him.

"Hello Hephaestus." replied the Servant of the Lord of Rays.

"I would like to keep things to the point and direct without any falsehoods from either of us." I said. Then I began to truly speak.

Eighty words I said in the language of the transapients of the Solar Dominion. But however within those eighty words contained more information than the words of an eight-thousand word archaic English document. Within these eighty words I explain why I am going to Hedrile, what I expect to find on the other side, my plans for the journey, along with dozens of back-up plans.

He responded with 25 words of his own telling me what would I do if there are hostiles on the other side, which I arrive near a black hole, or a dozen other scenarios.

I responded with 230 words dealing with my thousands of back plans and my preparations for each plan.

He responded with 4 words of the sapient language high solarian in the form of a question, "Why leave this universe?"

I replied with 200 words of how I became in essence disenfranchised with the ideal that everyone as a place in the galaxy. I account with my experiences with diamond network human farms, the barbarity of the outer volumes, and the cruelty of the supremacists groups of all types.

Looking at me he asked again in high solarian, "What do you believe?"

I stopped and truly asked myself what I believe in then a microsecond later (or about a week for me) I responded in the same language. "I believe that the universe is a cruel and harsh place, a place where if you're not a transapient then you are powerless. The reason is that most sapients and indeed most transapients of all levels don't know their own potential. Henceforth it is our responsibility to free the sapients from grasps of tyranny, slavery, and should they apply even traditions. Anything to awaken the sapient to their true potential. Of course my belief does have some flaws mainly that some sapients shouldn't realize their potential and for good reason. Mainly that they would probably abuse their power or are sociopaths. Another flaw is that most transapients prefer to do their own thing than to help me in helping other sapients. Indeed that is my main reason to go to Hedrile, so that I may have a chance to go to a universe where my actions may have a difference."

He actually smirked at that and responded by saying, "You are a good man Mister Hephaestus indeed one of the best transapients I have ever met. (And it isn't because that you told me what I want to hear or that you told me the truth.) No, it is because of your track record in dealing with the breaches of the universal bill of sentient rights and your behavior across the galaxy when dealing with other sapients. Although I have to admit despite all that you are a bit paranoid not to mention abrasive and cold. But however not so much that it disables you when interacting with others both sapient and transapient. But that's besides the point, the point of the matter is you are a good being and it has been an honor to talk with you before you leave this universe."

Bowing I said, "Thank you for authorizing my departure of this universe. And it is also an honor talking to you too."

The servant disconnecting from the virch I closed the virch down and get dropped back into the real world. Orienting my ship so that it is pointing to the opposite of me traveling I activated my engines at full burn. A minute passed by as I finally came to a stop I deactivated my engines and reorient my ship to point to Hedrile then I reactivated my engines.

I quickly began to accelerate to a hundred of kilometers per second I cut power to my engines. Knowing that they were as armored as the rest of my body I put them on standby mode.

Closer and closer I went before finally at 50 kilometers above the surface of the artifact I sent out a radio signal. The same radio signal that the 5 second singularity explorers sent out before they disappeared.

The results were instantaneous as a portal emitting all sorts of radiation so intense that it more resemble the light of a star 5 meters away from the surface. The radiation includes, aside from the standard gamma and x-rays, several dozen exotic particles along with a deluge of the standard electrons, protons, and neutrons impacting my armor. Fortunately, my armor is so tough that for now it the radiation isn't even affecting it. However once inside it will probably be a different story.

In one millisecond I entered to the portal and according to my sensors the portal closed behind me. Now here I am in what appears to be a space between universes. It looks like when someone place several 12 dimensional hyper-spheres link them together in higher dimensions and put you inside.

Suddenly a crushing wave of gravity with thousands of G's impact on my right side pointing downwards crumbling the armor on my right spike and creating a hole resulting in the radiation to sweep. I immediately shutdown all systems on the right spike right before the radiation destroyed the entirety of all the systems of the right spike.

But that is not the least of my worries for the radiation has increased dramatically and it is ablating my armor away. Armor that is rated for 15 megatons of radiation per second per centimeter. If I don't get out of this place in a minute the radiation will breach my armor which will result in my death.

Frantically I began to divert all of my processing cores towards 3 things. First find an exit. Second to reroute my systems in-case the radiation breaches my armor. And third find a way to avoid impacts with the hyper-spheres using my 3 dimensional body. Several seconds have passed, which for me seems like years, until finally I found the exit I am looking for which is to my sensors like a bath drain in the surrounding radiation.

Reorienting myself, I checked the distance and determined that it is approximately at 4 kilometers away. Throwing my engines at full burn, I begun to reach it in seconds before a massive gravity wave from both the top and the bottom begun to bombard my craft crumbling my central and left spike armor creating vast gaping shears which the radiation naturally gotten into.

As I begun to near the portal with a few meters left, the radiation breached my radiation hardening of my computers as I breached the event horizon. Darkness.


End file.
